Just days before the NFL Scouting Combine, safety JL Skinner suffered a torn pectoral. It was a massive stroke of misfortune, but you know what they say.
Some things happen for a reason.
The hard-hitting Boise State safety ended up falling all the way to the sixth round, where he fell into the clutches of the Denver Broncos. As much as it might have stung to see his draft stock plummet, Skinner is focusing on the tremendous blessing and a dream-come-true of being drafted into the National Football League.
But make no mistake: Skinner was disappointed by his draft-day fall.
“I’m just grateful to be here," Skinner said on Saturday after Broncos rookie minicamp practice. "The draft is the draft. Of course, I was disappointed, but that’s just what it is. All you need is a foot in the door and I got it.”
Skinner, 6-foot-4, 209 pounds, is coming off a productive senior season at Boise State, where he notched 65 total tackles and picked off four passes for the Broncos. Based on his size and play style, as is often the case with hard-hitting newcomers to Bronco-land, he's already drawn comparisons to Hall-of-Fame safety Steve Atwater.
Despite Atwater's legendary prowess as arguably the hardest-hitting safety in NFL history, Skinner didn't know anything about him — until he heard people comparing him to the Hall-of-Famer. Then he saw Atwater's massive banner hanging in the Broncos' indoor practice facility.
“Yeah, a lot of people have been telling me about him," Skinner said of Atwater. "I’ve still got to look him up, but I see him up in the indoor (practice facility), so he’s a legend, obviously. A lot of people have been telling me about him—something that they see, I guess, they see me with him, or something like that. But being compared to a legend like that is kind of crazy, so I’m going to look him up some more, look up a little bit more film, but this is my first time hearing about him.”
Known as the 'Smiling Assassin,' some of Atwater's ferocious hits are among the most iconic plays in Broncos history. That includes his square-up shot on Christian Okoye, aka 'The Nigerian Nightmare,' on national television, his strip/sack of Brett Favre in Super Bowl XXXII, and his shot-from-a-cannon hit late in that game that knocked three players out, including himself.
“You can’t do those hits no more," Skinner said. "I already know. I already know you can’t do those hits. You’re going to get fined or kicked out. So whichever one it is, I’m just grateful to be here. Even to be in the same place as a person like that, seeing a legend like that, so it’s been great so far.”
While genuflecting to a living legend like Atwater is smart, and better than nothing, the first chance Skinner gets, he'd be even wiser to look up some clips on YouTube so that he can speak more authoritatively about the legendary Broncos' safety "people have been telling" him about.
Skinner got his foot in the proverbial door, and now it's a matter of kicking it wide open. To do that, he'll need to work on his weaknesses as a safety and rely on his strengths.
“I’m just a football player. That’s the best way to describe it," Skinner said. "Things I could work on? Just covering those smaller slots [receivers]. Really just getting acclimated to the NFL game. But I’m just a ball player. I want to do everything to contribute, do everything for us to win, just do things like that."
READ: Ex-Broncos QB Speaks Out on 6th-Round Safety
Skinner was assigned the jersey No. 46 by the Broncos, without consultation, even though his college number 0 was available. For what it's worth, Skinner wasn't alone in that. Third-round cornerback Riley Moss wasn't consulted about his No. 37, so he plans to work his tail off to earn a "good" number.
"I just want to continue to become a better player and just develop in every way," Skinner said. "There’s not one thing I want to continue to develop in. I just got here (chuckles). I’m nowhere near where I’m supposed to be. So just continue to develop every day, learn from the vets, learn from everyone around.”
A call to Atwater beseeching some one-on-one tutelage certainly couldn't hurt in that endeavor.
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